Vauxhall (and for that matter, Opel) has been having a play with the Corsa for 2010. But if you’re looking hard at the picture at the top to see what they’ve done to the car, don’t bother. There are no styling changes, instead this is about improving performance, reducing consumption and tweaking the handling.

We’ve already reported on the latest Vauxhall Corsa ecoFLEX which now drops in to the freebie VED band thanks to improvements, and Vauxhall/Opel are now busy making similar tweaks to the rest of the range (but not the VXR/OPC). They’ve managed to improve economy by over 13% and 5 out of six Corsa models now emit less than 125g/km CO2.

In addition to the improvements made on the ecoFLEX, Vauxhall has also knocked the CO2 figure on the 73bhp 1.3 diesel to 114g/km and on the 1.7 litre (which now produces 128bhp) they’ve managed to trim 14g/km. On the petrol side the 1.0 litre gets an extra 5bhp and a drop to 117g/km. The 1.2 litre petrol also gets an additional 5bhp and the 1.4 litre an extra 10bhp. All models are also more economical, and are being fitted with gear shift indicators to help you coax the best from the car.

Vauxhall has also had a play with the steering and suspension, adding softer springs at the front with new ant-roll bar bushes to improve ride and drive. Steering geometry has been modified and you now get the option of ESP.

There are a couple of model tweaks as well, with the SRi starting at a lower price point as well as getting a VXR styling kit, AirCon and 17″ alloys.